PumaPay to Develop a System for Current Merchant Payment Systems

A PumaPay platform will use PullContracts to facilitate payment of merchants by customers. It will compete with big players in the payment industry including Mastercard and Visa by making merchant transaction less costly.

PumaPay is developing an open-source “PullPayment Protocol” that can allow merchants to pull funds off of a customer’s account with their consent to replace systems where a customer pushes money to a retailer.

The current method where a customer pays a merchant by pushing money to them involves many intermediaries including banks and is costly. For instance, to have a merchant pull out funds automatically with consent, many customers use credit cards. The company says the domination of online shopping sites by credit card systems causes merchants to lose out big.

They say retailers and businesses are forcing to pay multiple fees and in some cases, the fee is as high as 2 to 8 percent of the transaction. Thus small businesses feel the impact by shedding off their profits. The company also says the current systems have long transaction reconciliation times which affect cash flow negatively. Chargebacks are also common due to buyer’s remorse and fraud. This results in fines and insecurity and uncertainty of getting their money.

The protocol uses PullContracts and can definitely in use for monthly subscription systems, for instance, monthly payments of electricity bills and magazine subscriptions. Additionally, its wallets have ‘restricted payments’ that can be useful for parents who want to train children to become financially independent by giving them separate wallets. Employers can also use the feature on employee-issued wallets in order to manage expenditure by firms. They say they expect the use of the protocol in e-commerce and online services.

The platform will use PumaPay tokens that can be exchanged with fiat and other tokens.

PumaPay says their solution is “far more credible, efficient, cost-effective and scalable” compared to current systems. They say it will also popularize cryptocurrencies as an online and offline payment method. It says the system will target to “serve merchants, not exploit them” and will become a dominant standard for modern payments.

The company says no other existing platform can compete for enough with Visa and Mastercard and other big players. The platform will use PMA tokens. Those who use the protocol will also access the benefits of the PumaPay Pride, an app that alerts customers of nearby businesses which accept PMA tokens.

More joining platform as early adopters

The company platform will be testing for early adoption by brands such as Fashion TV, Rent24, Backpack.io, CCBill, SegPay. However, other online merchants in various industries. Others embracing the protocol is adult entertainment companies. These suffer from high credit card transaction costs as the sector is rated “high risk.”

PumaPay says the platform will have client privacy protection and can accommodate pay-per-view scenarios and flexibility to entertainment platforms.

IMLive, Vivid Entertainment, and LoadedCash have joined the project as early adopters.

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David Kariuki is a journalist who has a wide range of experience reporting about modern technology solutions including cryptocurrencies. A graduate of Kenya's Moi University, he also writes for Hypergrid Business, Cryptomorrow, and Cleanleap, and has previously worked for Resources Quarterly and Construction Review magazines.